April 09, 2017

The hottest new bar opening in Kansas City this summer has now hired one of the most talented and well-rounded group of bartenders in the city to run it.

David Manica, president and owner of Kansas City’s MANICA Architecture, and force behind the new The Monarch Cocktail Bar & Lounge, has announced that he has tapped the team from Liquid Minded Concepts to manage his new bar.

Brock Schulte, Kenny Cohrs and Mark Church, all three managing partners in Liquid Minded Concepts, will be joining The Monarch full time, while Brandon Cummins, also a partner in Liquid Minded Concepts, will serve as a consultant.

Schulte left his full-time head bartending position at The Rieger several months ago to begin his work as the new bar manager for The Monarch. In this new role, he will oversee cocktail menu and recipe development in addition to customer cocktail and spirits education.

While he was shaking things up at The Rieger, Schulte, under the Liquid Minded Concepts umbrella, also developed full service craft beverage programs for restaurants like M&S Grill, The Drum Room and Providence New American Kitchen in addition to competing and winning several national bartending competitions around the country.

The “face” of The Monarch bar will be Cohrs, who will be stepping into the role of service manager, managing the front-of-the-house operations and guest experience.

With over a decade of experience behind the bar, Cohrs’ reputation as a gentleman bartender makes him the perfect person for this role. Most recently he was the lead bartender at Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar, which is located next door to The Monarch, but before that he has also contributed his talents to other prominent bars in the city, like Manifesto and Café Trio.

Adding his 12 years of experience into the mix is Church, who headed up Grünauer’s Wunderbar for years. Church is looking forward to settling into his new role as the general manager for The Monarch. As a board member of the United States Bartenders’ Guild’s Kansas City chapter, Church’s bartending talents have also been acknowledged with many awards and accolades.

“As managing partners, the three of us are very excited to collaborate full-time with David on The Monarch Cocktail Bar,” says Cohrs. “From the atmosphere to cocktails to hospitality, our focus will be to create an exceptional experience.”

Finally, Cummins will serve as a consultant on The Monarch project, drawing on his 18 years of industry experience to help guide the new West Plaza bar and lounge. His insightful intelligence about how the bar industry works and what it needs to push forward has translated into professional accomplishments which include founder of the Paris of the Plains Cocktail Festival, a member of the Tequila Interchange Project and in his full-time work as the Director of Marketing & Education for Altamar Brands – a boutique spirits importer.

“As a team, we have been waiting for an opportunity like this for a long time, and now we are looking forward to bringing our talents together, to make The Monarch one of the best cocktail destinations in the city,” said Schulte.